Residents in a North Yorkshire village have been without broadband for nearly three weeks, leaving four elderly people unable to use internet-linked alarms and one suffering a fall during the outage.
Seven of the nine homes on Lowcross Drive, Great Broughton, have been without internet since September 4, and residents say they have been told it may not return until September 29.
Four of those affected use “medi-bands”, personal alarms designed to summon help if they fall or become ill.
Some of the houses on Lowcross Drive, Great Broughton (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)
Residents also say mobile phone reception is poor, leaving vulnerable people with fewer ways to call for help.
Valerie Painter said many of her Lowcross Drive neighbours are in their 80s, with some nearing 90.
She said: "We've almost been without internet for three weeks.
"There are nine houses on the street, and seven don't have internet. Four out of the seven have medi-bands that are lifelines just in case they fall.
Lowcross Drive, Great Broughton has been without internet for almost three weeks (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)
"One resident has had a fall since the internet outage."
Mrs Painter said the broadband went down on September 4.
Engineers have attended to fix the fault, but residents are still offline.
"People have come and gone to try and fix it but to no avail," she said. "We've just been left without internet.
The Lowcross Drive street sign (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)
"It's not good enough. A lot of residents in this street are in their 80s and some near to their 90s.
"We've been told that we might not get internet until September 29."
The outage is disrupting daily life as more household services rely on the internet.
Mrs Painter said she and her husband cannot use their smart television and are still being charged despite having no service.
The Lowcross Drive street sign (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)
She added: "They have the cheek to take money out of the account even though the internet hasn't been on."
Great Broughton parish councillor Martin Coady is pressing for residents’ connections to be restored as soon as possible.
Residents believe work damaged a local broadband cable on September 4 and that it has still not been repaired.
Lowcross Drive, Great Broughton (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)
Mr Coady said: "Residents just want this issue resolved as soon as possible. It's not good enough that they've been left without internet for so long.
"Some of the residents on the street are elderly and rely on the internet for their safety devices.
"It's not an issue that's just for Great Broughton; it's the way of the modern world – everything is done with the internet."
Residents say they have repeatedly contacted their broadband providers to get the fault fixed.
Mr Coady said customers were told to report faults through their providers, not directly to Openreach, but claimed the cable still had not been repaired.
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He also raised concerns about Openreach’s communication with provider Quickline, claiming it would not discuss the fault because Quickline had not made the original complaint.
Mr Coady said the outage showed how heavily rural communities rely on broadband, especially where mobile reception is unreliable.
He added: "With broadband now becoming an essential utility, and in an area of poor mobile reception, this is leaving vulnerable residents exposed, unable as they are to contact someone in the event of a fall or sudden illness."
In response to the internet concerns, an Openreach spokesperson said: “We’re sorry that residents in Lowcross Drive have suffered disruption to their broadband. A third party damaged our cable while trying to unblock a duct.
"We’ll need temporary traffic lights in place so our engineers can unblock the duct and repair the cable safely, and we expect this will be completed in the next few days.
"We understand how frustrating it is when you don’t have broadband, so we’re grateful to residents for their patience.”